| The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the role that available Online Travel Agency (OTA) destination information may have on a traveler's perceptions and intent in transaction decisions with that respective OTA. Specifically, this research examined a pleasure traveler's transaction perceptions and intentions with an OTA in regards to the independent variables of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived trust, perceived risk, and information sources. A modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was employed, adding the concepts perceived risk and perceived trust. Age, gender, income, and education were also obtained from the two hundred and fifty American adult pleasure travelers that took the online Likert-based survey. The Spearman correlation for information sources and perceived ease of use was rs =0.72 andp <.001, information sources and perceived usefulness rs = 0.71 and p < .001, perceived risk and behavior intention r s = -0.24 and p < .001, perceived trust and behavior intention rs = 0.71 and p < .001, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use rs = 0.77 and p < .001, perceived usefulness and behavior intention rs = 0.75 and p < .001, perceived ease of use and behavior intention rs = 0.80 and p < .001. All of the null hypotheses were rejected. The findings from the multiple linear regression analysis showed that perceived usefulness, information sources, and perceived ease of use were the three strongest predictors of intention to use an OTA. OTA's can focus resources on enhancing the visitor experience and providing information that limits searching elsewhere. Future research recommendations include determining the correlation between information sources and behavior intention, OTA purchase behavior of seniors, and the OTA purchase behavior of business travelers. |
